Although they are very rare, cancers of the appendix are on the rise, a new study finds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An analysis of a National Cancer Institute database found that compared with older generations, rates of appendix cancer have tripled among Gen X and quadrupled among millennials, according to the report, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is a disproportionate burden of appendix cancer among young individuals,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author, Andreana Holowatyj, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Holowatyj\u2019s earlier research was \u201cthe first to show that\u20021 in every 3 appendix cancers<\/a> is diagnosed among adults younger than age 50,\u201d she said in a phone interview. \u201cThat\u2019s compared to 1 in every 8 colorectal cancers diagnosed among adults younger than age 50.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, appendix cancers are extremely rare: According to the National Cancer Institute<\/a>, they occur at a rate of 1 to 2 per million people in the United States a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To see whether rates of the cancer had changed over time, Holowatyj turned to the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program, which includes data from nationally representative cancer registries that cover about 45.9% of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, there were 4,858 cases of appendix cancer from 1975 through 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the large proportion of patients diagnosed between ages 18 and 49 is combined with the new finding of a generational rise in Gen X and millennials, it\u2019s \u201cimportant that we find the causes underpinning these statistics in order to reverse this trend and reduce the disease burden,\u201d Holowatyj said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new study further confirms that there is a trend toward younger and younger patients from recent generations being hit with gastrointestinal cancers<\/a>, said Dr. Andrea Cercek, a medical oncologist and a co-director of the Center for Early Onset Colorectal and GI Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n